If I counted correctly, we had 12 bloggers and one gardening group member from LibraryThing post one or more articles related to our first book, The Essential Earthman by Henry Mitchell. I think that’s pretty good for our first month as an online book club. A big thank you to everyone who participated and for all the suggestions on books to read.

(Late breaking news… I’ve been alerted to one more post about Henry Mitchell, this one from the Bookish Gardener in Wisconsin.)

And now the announcement of the book for February! For those who want to plan ahead, the February selection is Two Gardeners: Katharine S. White & Elizabeth Lawrence–A Friendship in Letters edited by Emily Herring Wilson. I just got this book and have begun to read it, and I am hooked. We had suggestions to read a book by Katharine S. White or Elizabeth Lawrence, and with this book, we can read writings by both authors.

For those just catching up, our December selection is My Favorite Plant edited by Jamaica Kincaid. Remember if you don’t have time to read the book, you can still participate by posting one or more times in December about your own favorite plant. (See how flexible we are, you don’t even have to read the book to participate in December). The “meeting post” with links to all the entries I know about by then will come out around December 29th. Just leave me a comment when you have completed your post about the book or your favorite plant.

For January, the book selection is Teaming with Microbes, A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis. If you can’t find a copy of that book at your local library or don’t want to actually buy it because it just isn’t your kind of gardening book, please choose any book or article about soil, composting, or related topics to read and write a post about it in January. Our motto for January is “Once you read a good book on soil, it will never be just “dirt” to you again”.

And thank you to Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening for setting up a Garden Bloggers’ Book Club section on her Amazon storefront. You can find all the books selected there, ready for easy purchase.

Remember, we welcome any and all and everyone at any time.